There are very few, if any, other people who combine the modern sound of Hip Hop with traditional Native American music.

“I don’t know of anyone else who does this,” said Supaman (aka Christian Parrish Takes the Gun) after his final performance at Alberton School.

Supaman was a motivational speaker for the Annual Mineral County Fun Run. After elementary students from Alberton, Superior and St. Regis participated in a 1-mile and 5K race in St. Regis, they met in the school gym to listen to Supaman. Hosted by the Mineral County Health Department with help from the Alberton PEAK Foundation.

He is from Montana’s Crow Reservation and was dressed in a full Native American costume used for “fancy dances.” Complete with a headdress made up of eagle feathers and intricate beadwork on his head and arm bands. Bright blue and white feathers lined his arms and long tassels dangled from his arms, legs and shoulders. He wore beaded leather moccasins and carried sticks with feathers which flew and bounced as he danced to an ancient Native American beat.

He explained that it’s called “fancy dance” and started when Wild Bill was looking for Native Americans to work at his Wild West shows during the turn of the century. Dancers realized that the faster and fancier their dance, the more likely they were to be hired by the show.

Supa talked to the mesmerized crowd about growing up on the Crow Reservation and being a member of the “Apsaalooke Nation”. He spoke about his upbringing in an alcoholic home environment. Where food was often scarce and life was hard. But he said not all Native Americans are “drunks” as often portrayed in the media. Many become successful in their careers as doctors, lawyers and in other fields.

He explained that he never drank or did drugs, despite peer pressure. Eventually, they (his peers) stopped offering him alcohol and drugs because they knew he didn’t use them. During his performance, Supa recorded various sounds and beats and then combined them into a rhythmic hip hop song. He then had students from the audience come up. One by one, they each made a beat and then it was combined into a song much to the delight of the crowd.

He told jokes, starting with, “I have three beautiful children and two ugly ones.” But it was all in fun as he spoke highly of his family, community, ancestors and of hope. Though Native Americans were persecuted by the whites, he talked about overcoming cultural differences and respecting each other.

“What you put out into the world is what will come back to you, so put out love, respect, honor, and peace,” he told his audiences in St. Regis and Alberton.

He put on a high energy show of his fancy dancing and said that you should, “dance like your children are watching, your ancestors, your family. Dance for those who are hurting, those who can’t dance, those who lost loved one and those who suffer injustices throughout the world.”

Supaman then selected students to line up in front of the audience and each took turns breaking out a move to music. Then it was the teachers turn who showed the students that they too, could “bust out a move” as kids cheered and laughed.

Recipient of the Aboriginal Peoples Music Choice Award, Native American Music Award, North American Indigenous Music Award and multiple winner of the Tuney Award, Supa entertains people all over the world and his message has also been heard on Ted Talks. He lives in Billings and his music caught the attention of the famed band, the Black Eyed Peas and he recently performed with them.

After his shows in Mineral County, he was driving back home to Billings and then catching a flight the next day to perform in Oklahoma. He usually does three or four presentations a month, but one time he did six performances in one day. That proved to be too much and now he usually limits it to one or two in a day.

“I’ve been doing this for 15 years, working with suicide prevention programs. It’s called Sources of Strength and we go into communities and do programs like this (the one he performed that day) and then have workshops and trainings with the students. We have a wheel of our strengths, our mentors and activities, spirituality, different things that you can visually see so if you’re going through a hard time, you can look at these things and see where you can reach out. You can do simple exercises like having the kids write down their top five friends and see the ones who don’t write anyone down. Those are the ones who are really isolated and teachers can focus on that person and get them help.”

In addition to kids, he also goes to conferences, festivals, and even clubs. Supaman is also considering writing a book.

“We do writing workshops and talk about the power of writing. It becomes therapy and you use your mind to create. When you write from here (touches his heart) to here (touches his hand) there’s something that happens. There’s a release and it becomes really powerful when you write your feelings and be creative. During the writing workshops, the kids get to write some music down, make their own music, record it and at the end of the three-day conference perform it for the community. It’s powerful.”